North Korea’s Unha-3
rocket was built with
components from South Korea,
the United Kingdom and the
United States, UN experts
revealed.

In a
little-publicized March 10
report, the UN Panel of
Experts also discovered the
rocket contained
off-the-shelf parts from
China and Switzerland, while
Soviet-era SCUD missiles have
also been stripped down for
components.

The bulk of the components
had not been obtained in
violation of sanctions
targeting the North, the UN
said, adding their
utilization “shows the
ability of the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
to assemble complex systems
with globally sourced
components."

Many of the parts in
question listed are widely
available computer
components. However, a
US-manufactured video
decoder, along with UK-made
temperature and pressure
sensors, were also recovered.

The panel noted that the
South Korean parts consisting
of electronic circuits and
other computer parts were
manufactured between 2003 and
2010. They were unable to
trace the components back to
the manufacturers however,
due to “insufficient
identifiers.”

However, placing these
dual-use components on the
North Korean sanctions list
could prove problematic,
analysts say.

"The current list of
banned military and dual-use
goods is already
comprehensive. Adding more
readily available materials
to it would both risk
infringing on legitimate
non-military end-uses and be
extremely difficult for
member states to effectively
implement," Lawrence
Dermody, an analyst
specializing in illicit
trafficking at the Stockholm
International Peace Research
Institute, told NK News.

“If you start to ban
items that are not in
themselves offensive, but
that just might be used for
building a missile, where do
you stop?” an anonymous
source familiar with UN
sanctions told the news site.

Of the components
recovered, only two were
obtained in potential
violation of UN sanctions.
The panel said that the
radial ball bearings used in
the Unha-3’s rocket met four
specific criteria enumerated
in the sanctions list due to
their "tolerance, inner
and outer diameters and
width." They added that
the "umbilical and
inter-stage electrical
connectors are now prohibited
for import and export."

The panel was unable to
determine when the ball
bearings were produced,
though the concluded they
might have been made in the
1980s and sourced from the
former Soviet Union.

Directly or indirectly
exporting any component which
can be used in North Korea’s
missile program is punishable
by up to 20 years in prison
and a fine of $1 million.

At the time of the report
was published, the United
States had not replied to UN
panel’s request for
information regarding the
American-made parts.

“I certainly hope that
(the US) government, as a UN
member state, is meeting its
obligations under UN Security
Council Resolution 2094 to
investigate the sourcing of
these exports,” North
Korea sanctions expert Joshua
Stanton told NK News.

Meanwhile, the UN analysis
was released just before
Pyongyang test fired two
medium-range Rodong ballistic
missiles –a precursor to the
Unha-3 – off its eastern
coast into the sea Wednesday.

The launch, the first of
its kind in four years,
corresponded with a rare
Japan-South Korea-US summit
on the sidelines of the
Nuclear Security Summit in
The Hague. They also coincide
with Join US-South Korea
military exercises.

“The North's pre-dawn
missile launch is believed to
be aimed at protesting
against South Korea-US joint
military exercises and
demonstrating its
infiltration capability in a
show of force," South
Korean Defense Ministry
Spokesman Kim Min-seok said.

UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon warned North Korea
that such launches could
undermine trust in the
region.

“The Secretary-General
urges the DPRK to cease its
ballistic missile activities
and focus, together with
other countries concerned, on
the dialogue and diplomacy
necessary to maintain
regional peace and security,”
a spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon
said.

On Thursday, Luxembourg's
UN ambassador, Sylvia Lucas,
told reporters that the UN
Security Council had
"agreed to consult on an
appropriate response" to
the ballistic missile launch.

"Security Council
members condemn this launch
as a violation of Security
Council resolutions,"
Lucas said after a
closed-door meeting in New
York. Luxembourg holds the
Security Council's rotating
presidency for the month of
March.

A 2006 Security Council,
which was passed in the wake
of Pyongyang’s first nuclear
test, prohibits North Korea
from developing ballistic
missile technology. Pyongyang
has defied the ban on several
occasions. The latest example
was the successful launch of
a space satellite in 2012,
which many countries saw as a
veiled test of a long-range
ballistic missile with
military needs in mind.

Rodong launches are rare
in North Korea, which has
tested the missile twice, in
July 2006 and in July 2009.
North Korea is believed to
have between 50 and 100 such
missiles in its arsenal.